Monday, September 13, 2010

I have a button!!


Here's the code:


<a href="http://sarahssweeties.wordpress.com/"><img src="http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz359/ftmommy03/BLOGBUTTONblack200.jpg" /></a>


Although this picture is a year old, it has always been one of my favorites.  And because it is such a part of my blog, it's now on my button!  Their smiles are contagious, so I want to spread them!

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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Our Weekend

This is the weather for outdoor fires. We had three of them this weekend, one of them being Friday evening. It's so relaxing.



Saturday we got up when we wanted to. That was nice! We ran some errands to get ready for my next co-op class and then went to a festival at a church just down the road. We've been every year since we have been at this house. The boys always have a blast!



Sunday after church we had a friend's kiddos come home with us. They spent the entire day here. They are just like family!

So just enough for a weekend around here!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Our First Week of School

Whewww!  We survived it!  And really, it went rather well.  I'm not sure what I was so worked up about!  This is what I looked like stressing out over the school year about to start!


Ha!  I can't believe I'm putting such a picture of me on here.  A friend had left her camera at my house and I had to surprise her with some funny pictures.  And I'm just trying to be real with you.  Heh.


I do wonder, though, what I even did with all that time that I am now using towards school!  I guess I spent a lot of the summer getting ready!  One thing that has really helped me this year is my super organization.  The shelves and the system I have worked out for them has been the key!  And organization for me has been very important, too.



I have everything mapped out for the year.  Lessons plans will come about every week or every two weeks at a time, but at least I know what my year will look like.

This is what our lessons plans looked like this week...



The morning routine even worked out well!  I got up (some days easier than others!) and we were started by 10 when I wanted to.  We like the morning notebook, although the first few days they weren't so sure about it.

We got through 5 lessons of our main curriculum.  Only 155 of those to go!  Andrew likes to do most of his work just like this...



It wasn't exactly easy to get them to want to do all their work, but they did it.  It went better than I thought it would.  I think they were ready for some structure in our days.

Our intro back into geography went well, along with the other electives.  Science night with Daddy was sweet...

He made a spring scale to show them how to measure force.  He used it in a lesson on friction.  I loved seeing how interested they were!

We used Draw Then Write to make a bird.  They turned out so cute!  My Melissa and Doug easel is very helpful this year!



Our days went about like I had hoped, with the exception of that quiet reading time.  We'll work on that.  I'm sure it will be easier once the weather turns cold.  We ended at about 2:00 each day (with breaks, lunch, etc) in between.  So they had a lot of their day to play, just like I want it to be for them.

So God has proven Himself faithful in my life once again.  I'm trusting Him for the rest of our school year!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Sam's Trays at Work

Samuel is doing so well with his school trays.  Much better than I thought he would, actually!



Come school time, he is ready to pull out #1 (coded Buzz Lightyear) thanks to some great tags from Homeschool Creations.

He has four trays, and I think that's just about right for him.  That gives him time to do stuff while we are doing Handwriting, Math and Language Arts.  All the other subjects are done with all 3 boys together.

He likes what I have in there for him!  I keep most things handy so it's quick and easy for me to fill them.







I am joining in at Homeschool Creation's Preschool Corner!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Quick Idea for Paint/Craft Trays

For those of you that live by a Kroger store, I found these cute little divided plates for 70 cents each!  They are a part of their summer clearance.  I can imagine using them for all kinds of little crafts!  I bought 6 of them and wanted to give you the same idea before they are gone!  I love a good deal!